Why We Ought to Remember Chittaranjan Das's Selfless Pragmatism
June 16 is the hundredth anniversary of Chittaranjan Das's passing.
Chittaranjan Das, whose life is a landmark in the history of India’s struggle for freedom, was endearingly called ‘Deshbandhu’ (Friend of the country). Born on November 5, 1870 in Calcutta, he belonged to an upper-middle class family of Telirbagh in Dacca district. His father, Bhuban Mohan Das, was a reputed solicitor of the Calcutta high court. An ardent member of the Brahmo Samaj, he was also well known for his intellectual and journalistic pursuits. Das's patriotic ideas were greatly influenced by his father.
After receiving his early education at the London Missionary Society’s Institution at Bhowanipore in then Calcutta, Das passed the entrance examination in 1885 as a private candidate. He graduated from the Presidency College in 1890. He then went to England to compete in the ICS, but he missed the grade by a very narrow margin. Therefore, he decided to join the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1894. It was the author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay who partly influenced him in his political ideas, and from Surendranath Banerjee he took his first lessons in public service and elocution.
While at the Presidency College, Das was a leading figure of the student’s association, it was, however, not before 1917 that Das came to the forefront of nationalist politics. In that year he was invited to preside over the Bengal provincial conference held at Bhowanipore. At the conference, Das gave in Bengali his memorable presidential speech, animated by lofty idealism and patriotic fire. Das's political career was brief but meteoric. In course of only eight years (1917-25) he rose to all-India fame by virtue of his ardent patriotism, sterling sincerity and oratorical power.
In 1918, at both the Congress special session in Bombay and at annual session in Delhi, Das opposed the scheme of Montagu-Chelmsform Reforms as wholly inadequate and disappointing. The demand for provincial autonomy was successfully propounded in the teeth of vehement opposition from Annie Besant, the first woman president of the INC, and others. In 1919, Das went to Punjab as a member of the non-official Jallianwala Bagh enquiry committee. At the Amritsar Congress (1919) he made the first advocacy of obstruction while opposing the idea of co-operation with the government in the implementation of the 1919 reforms.
Statue of Chittaranjan Das at Deshbandhu Park in Kolkata. Photo: Wikimedia commons
In 1920, at a special session of the INC, under the presidentship of Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Gandhi announced his famous path-breaking programme of non-cooperation. Das sought some changes in it but in vain. He, however, had the support of Bipan Chandra Pal, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Annie Besant. Three months later the Congress met at Nagpur where he, however, accepted Gandhi’s lead and came back to Calcutta to renounce his large practice at the Bar. In Allahabad, his closest colleague and friend, Motilal Nehru, similarly renounced not only his lucrative legal practice, but also donated his palatial Anand Bhawan for the cause of freedom. The whole nation was deeply impressed to see the supreme act of self-sacrifice of these two tall stalwarts.
In 1922, as soon as it became obvious that the non-cooperation movement had collapsed, there were suggestions for withdrawal of the boycott of councils. Among the most ardent advocates of council-entry were Motilal Nehru and Das. They met with determined opposition from a strong section in the Congress to whom it was almost an act of sacrilege to tone down the non-cooperation programme while Gandhi was in jail. The issue was fiercely debated for five days at a meeting at Calcutta in November 1922, but no agreement could be reached, and the decision was left to the annual Congress session which was to be held in Gaya in December 1922.
The Gaya Congress was presided over by Das, the leader of the pro-changers – as the advocates of council-entry came to be known. Das delivered his speech, a 'marvel of logic, erudition and political idealism.' He pleaded for a change ‘in the direction of our activities in certain respects for the very success of the very movement which we hold so dear’. He argued that council-entry was not a negation of any principle but had to be mended, in a manner suitable to the attainment of Swaraj. Hitherto Congressmen had been boycotting the legislatures from outside; henceforth they would boycott them from within and more effectively, he said. ‘If we succeed in demolishing these Reformed Councils, you will find the whole nation astir,’ he added. Das was vigorously supported by Motilal Nehru.
At the Gaya Congress, the political logic of Das and Motilal Nehru had to contend with the sentiment of the majority of the Congress delegates – ‘no-changers’ as they came to be known – in whose eyes any deviation from the programme prescribed by Gandhi was an act of betrayal. Their chief spokesman was C. Rajagopalachari, who moved a resolution exhorting Congressmen neither to vote nor to seek election to the councils. S. Srinivasa Iyengar moved an amendment to this resolution proposing that the electors be advised to vote for Congressmen, who would not, however, take their seats in the councils. This amendment was accepted by Motilal Nehru as a compromise on behalf of the pro-changers, but it was rejected. The original resolution moved by Rajagopalachari was carried by 1,740 votes against 880.
Notwithstanding the recommendation of the civil disobedience enquiry committee, the Gaya Congress called for the continuance of the ‘triple boycott’ of courts, schools and councils and made intensified preparations for civil disobedience. This was an ignominious defeat for the pro-changers, and especially for Das, the president of the Congress session; he had failed to carry with him even the majority of delegates from Bengal. He, therefore, resigned from the presidentship of INC – something which was seen as an act of great moral courage.
However, the pro-changers took up the gauntlet; they decided to defy the verdict of the Gaya Congress. On December 31, 1922, at a meeting held at the Gaya residence of the Maharaja of Tikari – a client of Motilal Nehru – it was decided that they would form a new party, the ‘Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party’, with Das as its leader, and Motilal Nehru, V.J. Patel and Khaliq-uz-zaman as secretaries. The party accepted the creed of the Congress, viz., the attainment of the swaraj by all peaceful and legitimate means, and the principle of non-violent non-cooperation.
However, the prospects for the new party did not look too bright. One of its sponsors, M.R. Jayakar, noted in his diary on December 31, 1922: ‘Not sure, whether the affair will go through.'
Chittaranjan Das 1965 stamp of India. Photo: Wikimedia commons
Seven weeks later, on February 20, 1923, a general meeting of the party was held at Allahabad. It changed the name of the party to ‘Swarajya Party’ and approved its constitution and programme. Anyone who was a member of any Congress organisation in India, subscribed to the constitution and programme of the new party and would pay Rs 3 per annum, could become a member. A general council was set up, consisting of such members of the Congress as were members of the Swarajya Party, and of two members elected by the Swarajya Party of each province. The executive committee of the party was to include the president, the general secretary, and seven persons nominated by the president from among the members of the general council.
The political partnership between Motilal Nehru and Das, the two outstanding lawyers of the country, who had sometimes figured as rival counsels in civil suits, was a great asset to the new party. 'The imaginative insight and emotional appeal of Das formed a perfect foil to the objectivity and down-to-earth empiricism of Motilal,' Jayakar wrote.
Das, known as 'Deshbandhu' wanted a swaraj for the masses, not for the classes. He believed in non-violent and constitutional methods for the realisation of national independence.
In the economic field, Das stressed the need of constructive work in villages. A champion of national education and vernacular medium, he felt that the masses should be properly educated to participate in the national movement.
Das also made his mark as a poet and an essayist. His religious and social outlook was liberal. A believer in women’s emancipation, he supported the spread of female education and widow re-marriage.
Das passed away on June 16, 1925 at Darjeeling at the age of 55. Great as a jurist, Das was the greatest and most dynamic leader of the then united Bengal; he was an apostle of Indian nationalism. He was also the source of inspiration for the future leaders of Bengal, including Subhas Chandra Bose, J. M. Sen Gupta, B.C. Roy and many others. Netaji in his biography The Indian Struggle: 1920-42 had lamented the death of his political mentor:
'The death of Deshbandhu on 16th June, 1925, was for India a national calamity of the first magnitude. Though his active political career consisted of barely five years, his rise had been phenomenal. With the reckless abandon of a Vaishnava devotee, he had plunged into the political movement with heart and soul and he had given not only himself but his all in the fight for Swaraj... But he was nothing if not fearless. He was conscious of his exact role, namely that of a practical politician, and he was therefore never afraid of courting unpopularity.'
The 100th death anniversary of the great stalwart this year, and his 155th birth anniversary next year, must be observed with due respect.
Praveen Davar is a writer, an ex-army officer, former secretary of the AICC and editor, The Secular Saviour.
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